Pullman, Wash. and Moscow, Idaho – The University of Oregon swept their final PNCLL regular season games of 2009 with two big wins against Washington State and the University of Idaho this weekend. The Ducks had already clinched their spot in the league playoffs but needed two wins to secure the 2nd seed this coming week.

Saturday, Oregon travelled to Pullman to face a Washington State team looking to play spoiler and end their season with a huge upset. Unfortunately for the Cougs, an upset wasn't in the cards as the Ducks came out strong and buried numerous goals in the first five minutes of the game. Holding a significant lead at halftime, Oregon used everyone on their bench in order to get them more experience. Washington State played hard until the last whistle but was eventually outmatched by the Ducks, 27-1.

Sunday, the Ducks faced an Idaho squad again looking to play the role of spoiler for their last home game and send their seniors out on a high note. It was clear in warm-ups that the Vandals were pumped up to get a shot at a divisional rival and very early in the first quarter, it seemed as though the Ducks might be in for a rough day as some miscommunications on fast break defense led to two early scores for Idaho.

After those early mistakes however, Oregon clamped down on defense and let their high powered offense do its job led by junior attackman Justin Blackmore and senior midfielders Jon Matusiefsky and Will DeSiervo. Reliable face-off men Bo Montange and Brett Whyte won the overwhelming majority of their draws, helped by freshman LSM and player of the game Ryan Kautz, who was there to scoop up seemingly every ground ball near him. By halftime the Ducks again had control of the game and worked their depth chart in. The Vandals put up a strong effort but the UO was just too much and won 19-9.

This weekend the Ducks travel to Washington to compete in the PNCLL playoffs as the 2nd seed in a tournament that they are looking on as a must-win in order to get back to the MCLA tournament in Denver this year. They will face the University of Washington in their first round game and, with a win, will play the winner of the Simon Fraser/Oregon State match-up Sunday.

Many fans are already talking of a rematch of the SFU/Oregon game played earlier this month in which Simon Fraser came back to win in the fourth quarter after trailing the entire game. The Ducks, however, are not looking past their first round opponent and according to Co-Head Coach John Wright will, "take every game one day at a time so we don't expend all our focus too early in the weekend."

See oregonlacrosse.org for game times and directions for the PNCLL playoffs

2009-04-30